Tube time to tree time

After several weeks of traveling, sick kids, and a stressed husband in the middle of his comprehensive exams for his doctorate, I'm finally back!

My five year old son LOVES all things electronic. Be it video games, T.V., or computer games he is constantly begging- badgering- berating me to have more more more time to do these activities. One he particularly likes lately is Sonic Underground (which he discovered for himself). It is nearly impossible to turn it off without serious drama, even when it seems to me like I have offered much more appealing things like going outside to play in the mud or play with bows and arrows. Conversations about why it is not so good for his brain are just exasperating and forcing him to go outside just makes him frustrated. I don't want to set up that dichotomy of having to go outside because my mom makes me versus doing this cool media because he likes it. I also want to honor his interests. So we started to have a conversation the other day about what it is about video games he likes exactly.

Me: I was wondering what is it that you like so much about playing video games? It's not one of my favorite things, but I know it is something you like a lot.

C: Well it IS one of mine.

Me: Do you like being able to act out and be part of the story? Being able to knock out the bad guys? How fast it moves? Being able to do tricks you can't do in real life?

C: Yeah, I like all of that. I like going fast.

Me: Well did you know that the video game started out with someone's drawings? It didn't move at all.

C: Really?

Me: It took someone a long time to draw them over and over again to make something that we call animation. They had to be a really good artist- just like you. And they had to do a lot of sketches-just like you drawing in your nature journal. They had to practice a lot and pay attention to the details too.

(We then spent some cool time on youtube looking for some flip book animations.) Here was our favorite:

You Tube video: Flipbook Animation: Sonic the Hedgehog (Full Version) by bloodyrenegadex

(In this day in age kids have the privilege of seeing life in fast motion. We are so spoiled with all the National geographic type images and videos. We never have to wait or plan to see anything. With all these marvelous end products it is so easy for all of us to forget about the process and the painstaking work that might be involved in acquiring such photography and images. As naturalists and interpreters we constantly feel like we are trying to teach a fast world to look slowly. And we worry that our message will be obsolete to this generation who seem to have already jumped ahead to the next thing before we even open our mouths. So I thought fast...what could I do to help him see a process and how can we use nature to show a product and mimic the fun of animation over time? Time-Lapse Photography!)

Me: I know that sometimes I have seen photographers do a trick. Just like the animation tricks our eyes to see many pictures become one, they can make something that usually happens a little bit slowly like a flower opening or a tree growing appear to happen more quickly so that we can watch the whole process. This is called time-lapse photography.

Cris: That sounds really cool mom. 

Here are some amazing nature videos that we found in our discussion of time lapse photography:

 

You Tube video: Flowers in Growth (Time Lapse)

You Tube Video: Thunderstorm time lapse

You Tube Video: Time lapse dandelion flower to seed head

And now Cris and I are doing a project where we are taking pictures of trees in our yard over many days to see how they change over time. We have a tulip tree that is particuarly interesting. As it is spring and everything is bursting into bloom this is an awesome time to do this project!

Look around, what can you and your students turn into an animation/time-lapse project?